The disclosed embodiments relate to a medical device. Specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a catheter that is inserted into a body lumen such as a blood vessel or a urinary duct.
A catheter generally includes an inner layer that is a long hollow tubular body, a reinforcing body that covers an outer periphery of the inner layer, and an outer layer that covers an outer periphery of the reinforcing body.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,804 describes a catheter including an inner layer (inner tubular member), a reinforcing body (formed by at least one filament) covering the outer periphery of the inner layer, and an outer layer covering the outer periphery of the reinforcing body. The reinforcing body is folded back on the outer periphery of the inner layer to form double layers and triple layers in the reinforcing body (see, e.g., FIG. 2 to FIG. 6).
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,804, the end of the reinforcing body is held between the inner layer and a radiopaque ring (see column 8, lines 26-31). The radiopaque ring is used so that a user of the catheter can visually recognize a position of the catheter during procedures; that is, the radiopaque ring functions as a so-called marker.
In the catheter described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,804, the reinforcing body is folded back on the outer periphery of the inner layer in the middle part of the catheter to form a plurality of layers. However, if the folded part is moved to an end of the reinforcing body, the reinforcing body is loosened. Therefore, when the folded part of the reinforcing body is moved to an end of the reinforcing body, it is necessary to fix the end of the reinforcing body to the inner layer with a fixing tool such as a ring, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,804.
Moreover, the catheter described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,804 separately requires a separate radiopaque ring as a marker so that a user of the catheter can visually recognize a position of the catheter during procedures.